Give your agent tools and integrations

Answering from its knowledge is only part of an agent's job. Tools and integrations let it do more: hand a conversation to your team, work in GitHub or Notion, book a meeting in Calendly, or call your own API. You decide what each agent gets.

Built-in abilities#

Some abilities are built in and always on for every agent, so they don't appear in the Tools list: searching the agent's Library and your portals, web search and a calculator. You don't need to add them, and you can't turn them off.

Add tools#

1. In AI Agents, open the row's actions menu (⋯) and select Edit.
2. Under Tools and connections, pick from Tools. The list shows the tools turned on for your workspace. If it says No tools are turned on in this workspace., there's nothing to add yet.
3. Select Save changes. The agent uses the new tools from its next reply.

Pick only the tools the agent's role needs.

Hand the conversation to a person#

The Request Operator tool lets the agent ask for a person from your team when a visitor would be better served by one, such as for a refund, a billing question or a repeated failure. The request lands in Inbox as an AI-agent request, separate from the visitor's own Talk to a person button. Add it in Tools, or put it in a Skill with instructions on when to use it. See Let visitors talk to a person.

Integrations#

An integration is something outside help.ai that the agent can use, such as GitHub, Notion, Calendly, a Shopify store, your own MCP server or your own API. Each one is added and signed in once, on the workspace's Integrations page, and every agent, deployment and AI Chat it's shared with can use it. See Connect integrations.

1. In AI Agents, open the row's actions menu (⋯) and select Edit.
2. Under Tools and connections, find Integrations and select Choose integrations.
3. Pick the ones the agent needs. The list is grouped by category, such as Developer Tools or Scheduling, and shows only the integrations shared with you. A Connected one can be picked; one that isn't signed in yet has a Sign in link instead.
4. Select Save changes.

Each picked integration shows its status, and Members only when it isn't shared with visitors. To change the selection, select Change integrations, or remove one with the trash icon on its row.

A connected integration with its own actions, such as GitHub, Notion or your own MCP server, also has Test connection. It connects the way a chat would and shows what it found, such as Connected · 49 tools, or what went wrong and how to fix it.

To add one you don't have yet, select Add integration. It opens in a new tab, so the changes you haven't saved on the agent stay. Then pick it under Choose integrations.

How the agent uses them#

• Their own actions. GitHub, Linear, Slack, Stripe, Notion, Calendly, Sentry, a Shopify store, your own MCP server and others bring their own actions, such as searching commits or booking a meeting. In a chat, each step is named after the integration, such as GitHub · Search commits.
• HTTP Request. Every other integration, such as a Custom API, is called with the HTTP Request tool, which the agent gets along with it. The agent names the integration that signs in, and its key is added only on that integration's allowed sites.
• Your note. The agent reads each integration's When should the AI use it? (optional) note, such as "Use this Stripe account for refunds only."

The agent never sees a key or password. If a tool's answer repeats one, the agent sees [REDACTED] instead.

If an integration isn't shared with a chat, isn't signed in or needs signing in again, the agent tells the person it can't use it and carries on without it.

Public chats#

A widget or hosted-page deployment can add integrations for its chats: in its Chat widget tab → Features, pick them under Integrations in this chat (optional). They're added to the agent's own.

Visitors' chats use only integrations shared with visitors (Who can use it → Visitors in public chats); the pickers mark the others Members only. In visitors' chats, an integration that signs in with your workspace's account offers only its read-only actions, and HTTP Request only reads.

Approvals#

Some actions ask before they run, such as tools that send a message, most integration actions that change something, and HTTP requests that do more than read:

• In your own chats, you approve or reject the step in the conversation.
• In the widget, visitors see approve and reject controls while Visitor approvals is on in the deployment's Chat widget tab → Features. It's on by default, and it also lets the agent ask visitors for missing details.

Test the agent's tools#

Test chats in the dashboard use the agent's own tools and integrations. To check approvals the way visitors see them, use the deployment's Preview. See Test your AI agent before customers see it.

What to give an agent#